Webessay

Creative Work
Year: 
2003
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Description (in English): 

What happens with an essay when it abandons the set form of book pages, and steps out into the internet's virtual space? Webessay is an invitation into a digital meta-essay: an enormous text-tapestry of quotations, photos, rt and music produced from the two essayists associations and personal library, and arranged into four metaphorical trips: the scientific expedition, the internal journey, the big city holiday, and space tourism. The travelers move past over fifty different stops in all, and are sketched out with the help of many hundreds of airmail-striped envelopes. The program is organized so that the traveler can follow the predetermined routes' tracks, or take a spontaneous trip with the help of self-selected links. You can search in the depths, surf freely away in a labyrinth of hypertexts, or you can choose to be led by the webessay's composition. You're guaranteed to get lost, and find something you weren't expecting.

Description (in Danish): 

Hvad sker der med essayet, når det forlader bogsidens faste form og træder ud i nettets virtuelle rum? Webessay er et bud på et digitalt meta-essay: et svimlende tekstvæv af citater, fotos, kunst og musik iscenesat ud fra de to essayisters associationer og personlige bibliotek og tilrettelagt som fire metaforiske rejser: den videnskabelige ekspedition, den indre rejse, storbyferien, rumturisme. Rejserne bevæger sig forbi over et halvt hundrede forskellige stop i alt og aftegnes ved hjælp af flere hundrede luftpost-stribede kuverter. Programmet er tilrettelagt, så den rejsende enten kan følge ruternes forudbestemte spor eller tage på spontane udflugter ved hjælp af håndplukkede links. Man kan søge i dybden, surfe frit af sted i labyrinten af hypertekster, eller man kan lade sig lede på vej af webessayets komposition. Der er garanti for, at man farer vild og finder noget, man ikke ventede.

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Screen shots: 
Webessay - first lexia
Contents of another "envelope" on the "inner journey"
Contents of an "envelope" on the "inner journey"
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Record posted by: 
Melissa Lucas